The click-and-mortar business model is changing retail spaces

July 07, 2018

Text Kirsten GeekiePhotos Courtesy of H&M

Paris – After a year and a half of renovations, H&M’s flagship store has reopened with some surprising changes to the traditional format. Retailers are having to work harder than ever to bring consumers into their stores. The anonymity of online shopping is pushing the giants of fast fashion to focus on what their spatial design can give the customer while incorporating the efficiency of e-commerce. The marriage of traditional and digital retail has lead to a clever rebranding of contemporary retail spaces as click-and-mortar.

With an expansion that stretched the previous store layout from three floors to five, it is the addition of two service stations that is changing the brands current legacy. The new Take Care program has brought post-purchase repair to the fast fashion mega store. Sewing machines are available so clients can have their fashion pieces repaired or embroidered. The new program is geared towards the most desired customer: the millennial.

The millennial’s purchasing power is scaling yearly with an expected 35% of spending power estimated by 2030. But it doesn’t only take an Instagram feature wall to bring people into a store: sustainability is a major driver for sales among the millennial crowd. In 2018, a report by Business of Fashion and McKinsey concluded that 66% of millennials are willing to spend more on brands that are sustainable.

H&M has identified the concerns of the consumer market. Fast fashions current connection to the negligence of environmental and labor rights is enough to send a consumers spending elsewhere. By investing in a program that repairs seemingly dispensable clothing, H&M is not only shifting their appearance but also offering their visitors an experience within the store.

The in-store repair offering has been showing up over the last few years in stores like Patagonia, Nudie Jeans, and the sneaker repair shop Jason Markk. But for a retail giant like H&M it shows a shift in the retail market to make interiors do more.